Apple has spent much time trying to ensure that anyone
who buys an iPod is completely locked in to an
Apple-centred world in which they use iTunes, buy from
the iTunes Music Store, purchase only Apple-certified
iPod accessories and, ideally, abandon their plans to
migrate from Windows XP to Vista and instead purchase
a shiny new iMac.

It is very nice to see the BBC coverage go into the depth
of the issues involved in the closed interfaces (the now
read-only database; the streaming limited to Apple products by
means of using encryption to lock the competition out; the new
cable add-ons; the locking-out of Linux jukebox software; and
the ringtones fiasco):

It is hard to see what justification there can be for
these various measures other than an attempt to lock
customers in and keep competitors out.

I've asked Apple why it is doing this, but it has
remained characteristically silent, preferring to
invest its time and energy in the iPhone's UK launch.

[...]

But its business practices do not stand up to
scrutiny, and when it comes to music downloads it is
just as bad as Microsoft on servers, putting its time
and energy into creating barriers to competition
instead of letting its developers and designers
concentrate on doing great stuff.

If Apple was serious about building a music
industry around downloads and digital devices then it
would open up its devices and interfaces to allow
greater innovation and greater competition.

It would have faith in its own products to compete
in this larger ecosystem instead of trying to lock
everyone in with tactics that resemble those of IBM in
the days of the mainframe.

I wrote a presentation this morning using
Microsoft's PowerPoint, but displayed it using Apple's
Keynote. Apple can sell Keynote because it took
PowerPoint apart and figured out how the files work.

Had Apple been unable to do so, or found that
every time it figured out what was happening Microsoft
changed the format, it would have complained loudly.

Yet this is exactly the technique it is using
against third party jukeboxes. And it is time it
stopped.

Read the whole piece.

The BBC article missed the bit where purchasing DRM music
also locks you into a particular platform (Apple could license
the DRM to allow users to re-encode the songs into another
DRM if necessary).

So the EU has teeth, lets make sure that they do not end up
wrapped around Apple marketing and they act decisively to
ensure interoperability and an open ecosystem.